Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art, Mua Mission, Malawi

Chamare Museum, Bwalo, Gallery and Showroom

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Contemporary work is available for sale at both the Art Gallery and the new Showroom, where it is also possible to place Commissions for projects extending from individual pieces to whole decorative schemes. Kungoni Centre is always willing to help visitors to develop ideas for possible Commissions.

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Fanizo Mzenje’s ‘Makanja’ (2009) is inspired by the character in Gule Wamkulu, the ‘Great Dance’ of the Chewa people of Malawi. It is the centrepiece of the Art Gallery of Kungoni Centre.

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Florensio Mpamu depicts Chadzunda (2007), the ‘father’ of Gule Wamkulu, as formed from a multitude of other Gule characters. He named the work after Jn. 6: 68, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life’, in protest to the Church that the Nyau societies responsible for Gule Wamkulu were excluded from its life and liturgy.

Chamare Museum and Bwalo

chamare_museum_01The Chamare Museum was opened in 2002 to present the cultures of the Chewa, Ngoni and Yao peoples who converge in this part of Malawi. It is named in honour of Jean-Baptiste Champmartin, who worked for many years at Mua Mission.

The Chamare Museum is remarkable for its display of Gule Wamkulu masks and structures, which serve as the vehicle of the ancestors’ moral teaching for the Chewa. Its collection of Ngoni and Yao cultural artifacts is also very fine. The cultures of all three peoples are brought alive in an innovative display that includes Claude Boucher Chisale’s detailed photographs and explanations.

The Chamare Museum presents also the history of Mua Mission and reflects on the dynamic relationship between faith and culture (Inculturation) that informs the activity of Kungoni Centre.

The Chamare Museum is open for guided tours. It serves also as the resource centre for cultural courses, developed by the late Claude Boucher Chisale, for those who wish to engage more deeply with the cultural and artistic traditions of Malawi.

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The Kungoni Dance Troupe performs on the adjacent bwalo (dance floor). It is available for hire at public and private functions.

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Art Gallery and Showroom

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At least two hundred painters and carvers from Malawi and Central Africa have been associated with Kungoni Centre over the years: some have passed their entire lives here. They draw on their different cultural backgrounds and belief systems to produce strikingly original creations in a wide variety of styles. Kungoni work is to be found in private collections and institutions throughout the world.

Much of the carvers’ activity takes place in public view in the attractive Botanic Garden in Kungoni’s grounds. Visitors are welcome to watch the carvers at work.

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The Art Gallery was opened in 2009 to display a representative collection of Kungoni work over several generations of painters and carvers.

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It contains also a number of remarkable pieces that were commissioned specially for its opening. Two examples, which draw on Chewa iconography, are placed on this page. It is a considerable honour for an artist to have his work displayed in the permanent collection.

The external walls of the Art Gallery are decorated with cement frescoes that display the various arts and crafts that are practised at Kungoni Centre and the five inhabited continents on which its work is to be found.

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